iDVD

iDVD is available only for the Macintosh and then only bundled with a 733-MHz Apple PowerMac G4 ($3,499 direct), which comes with an internal Pioneer DVD-RW drive. Tightly integrated with Apple's iMovie 2 video editor, iDVD is the easiest system to use, but it's mainly for consumersnot businesses.

iDVD's interface consists of a graphical menu and playback window. The first step is to choose a theme, including background colors and images, icon shapes, and text font, size, and color. You can add movies via drag-and-drop and menus by clicking on a folder icon. The program automatically arranges content, creating a cookie-cutter look. In addition, page navigation is limited. Though you can create multiple menus, you can't jump around among them; you must go back to the previous menu, then over to the next one.

We created clips in iMovie 2, which has a convenient iDVD export function. iDVD has the most elegant slide show capabilities of the DVD software we tested, as well as jargon-free DVD mastering and burning, which conveniently includes automatic MPEG-2 encoding.

For businesses, though, the program is less valuable, partly because it can't write to CD-R or create titles that can play in a CD-ROM. The other programs we evaluated can burn projects onto a CD-R disc, and they include a special run-time program that lets computers without DVD decoders play the titles.

The other drawback is the software's inability to create and access chapter points directly, a necessary feature for longer videos with multiple entry points. The only way this can be done with iDVD is to break a movie into chunks. Doing that, however, prevents linear playback. Apple's higher-end DVD creation program, DVD Studio Pro ($999 direct), does everything that iDVD does, but it also offers access to chapter points and the ability to burn CD-R discs.

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